1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to communication cables. More particularly, the present invention relates to a module which fans out an MPO connection to six duplex LC ports.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 shows a network rack R, in accordance with the prior art. Networking equipment EQ is mounted between a first rail 13 and a second rail 15. The first rail 13 may be spaced from the second rail 15 by a fixed distance, like 19 inches (about 48 centimeters) or 23 inches (about 58.5 centimeters). Typically, the height dimension of the rack R is divided into intervals, such as rack units (e.g., A, B, C, D, E, F, . . . ). Each rack unit (or “U”) may be defined as about 1.75 inches (about 4.5 centimeters).
FIG. 1 illustrates a piece of network equipment EQ-1 mounted in the rack level B position, and a piece of network equipment EQ-2 mounted in the rack level E position. Equipment EQ-1 has several twelve fiber MPO ports on its face, and here it is assumed that a connection is desired to be formed with a first, twelve fiber MPO port 17.
Equipment EQ-2 has multiple duplex LC ports on its face. In this example, it is assumed that connections need to be made with six duplex LC ports 19, 21, 23, 25, 27 and 29 on equipment EQ-2. For purposes of illustration, the twelve fiber termination within the single MPO port 17 might present six sets of transmit/receive channels. Equipment EQ-2 might be a connection panel for individual server connection ports, e.g., where duplex port 19 presents a transmit port 19A and a receive port 19B for a first server.
Next, with reference to FIGS. 2-3, a first prior art structure to make the connections between equipment EQ-1 and EQ-2 will be described. FIG. 2 shows a prior art, breakout cable 31, sometimes referred to as a fan-out cable. The breakout cable 31 has a twelve fiber MPO connector 33 at a first end, a molded transition region 34 near the middle, and six duplex LC connectors 35, 37, 39, 41, 43 and 45 at the opposite, second end of the breakout cable 31.
FIG. 3 illustrates the employment of the breakout cable 31 of FIG. 2 to make the desired connections between equipment EQ-1 and EQ-2. The MPO connector 33 is connected to the MPO port 17 of equipment EQ-1. The duplex LC connectors 35, 37, 39, 41, 43 and 45 are connected to the duplex LC ports 19, 21, 23, 25, 27 and 29 of equipment EQ-2 of FIG. 1.
Next, with reference to FIGS. 4-6, a second prior art structure to make the desired connections between equipment EQ-1 and EQ-2 will be described. FIGS. 4 and 5 illustrate a breakout module 20. A front face of the breakout module 20 has twelve duplex LC ports 10, each of which can accept a duplex LC connector 24. The breakout module 20 has a first twelve fiber MPO port 51 and a second twelve fiber MPO port 55 on its back side. First and second breakout cables, with first and second transition regions 54, 56 (like transition region 34 in FIG. 2) interconnect the first and second MPO ports 51 and 55 to groups of six duplex LC ports 10, respectively. More detail concerning the breakout module 20 can be found in US published application 2010/0322576, which is herein incorporated by reference.
FIG. 6 illustrates the employment of the breakout module 20 to achieve the desired connections between the equipment EQ-1 and the equipment EQ-2 of FIG. 1. In FIG. 6, first and second breakout modules 20 and 20′ have been mounted within a frame 22 secured to the first and second rails 13 and 15. A first MPO to MPO patch cord 67 connects MPO port 17 of equipment EQ-1 to MPO port 51 on the backside of the breakout module 20. First through sixth duplex LC patch cords 69, 71, 73, 75, 77 and 79 connect the first through sixth duplex LC ports of the breakout module 20 to the first through sixth duplex LC ports 19, 21, 23, 25, 27 and 29 on equipment EQ-2.